The Vanishing of Governor Chris Christie

Bridge-gatea closer look at the governor’s staff

Eric LaMont Gregory

snarled traffic on the George Washington Bridge

From what has been pieced together so far, it seems that Bridge-gate was orchestrated by New Jersey gubernatorial aides. They ordered the Highway Department to close half of the lanes on one of the busiest thoroughfares in the United States for days—theoretically to punish the Fort Lee, New Jersey mayor for not supporting Christie’s reelection campaign.

These allegations are the subject of a number of state and federal investigations and will play out in due course. The governor is being afforded due process, something he and his aides denied the people of Fort Lee and hundreds upon hundreds of others who just happened to be on those roads leading to the George Washington Bridge those many days.

This author has been trying to draw attention to the staffs that governors, senators and representatives hire to do their bidding, which ought to be the fair representation of their districts. But all too often, the actual choice made in an election is more than one party or the other; it is a choice that determines whether or not you will be represented at all.

In the author’s case, it was an aide to a Senator from Ohio who flagrantly interfered with the constitutionally protected freedom of the press, when this author was interviewing the son of a presidential candidate.

And, in the circumstances of Bridge-gate, the thing to be remembered is that Governor Christie was about to appoint the member of his staff who ordered the ‘traffic study’ to become Attorney General of the State of New Jersey. That, above all else, should spur the public to take a closer look at the people those-who-would-be-king hire to run their offices and to conduct their campaigns.

Can you name the members of your elected officials and legislators staff?

If the answer is no, you might want to avoid interviewing the son of a presidential candidate in the presence of an Ohio senator’s aide as well as driving on the George Washington Bridge.